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Well, either that, or Little Big Planet is taking a really grim direction for a sequel. I wake up to a mass of mails from this – FinalSin was first, but cheers to you all – which shows how much even a sliver of information on Bioshock 2 excites people. I suspect we’re reaching the point when a lot more is going to be forthcoming soon. But while we wait, we’ve got some clues on this teaser site to pick over. It’s a map, with a series of faux-press clippings pinned to it and a mark on the West of Ireland. Presumably, we’re going to get more marks and more evidence as the month goes by. But what to make of it all?
The west of Ireland position suggests to me that we’re going to get more of these in a vague circle around wherever they’re going to be having their new city – a quasi Atlantis in the middle of the Atlantic would be my bet. The doll is clearly inspired by a Big Daddy. The newspaper clipping tells of a little girl being kidnapped at night by someone able to run at unnatural speed even though carrying a seven year old. He was “thin above average height and wore some kind of ‘Red light'” which appeared to be coming from his head. While police think he was wearing a miner’s helmet, I suspect there’s another explanation. The note from the beach-comber is linking the first two pieces of evidence together – that the toy was found on the beach previously, and it seems to resemble the kidnapper a little. After all, it appears to be a helmet and they could be boots and… well, J.Lynch is dismissed as a nut in red ink by whomever received the mail. Two other minor things there – it starts with “Intrigued by your speculation re: connection betw: footprints + kidnapping”. In other words, whoever received the letter has been doing some speculation of their own. I suspect it’s whoever’s maintaining the actual map itself, and we’ll get their commentary again. Secondly, we have a date. March 18th 1967.

Though Release Me went into Number 1 the week after – meaning what people were buying after the psychic fallout was actually old Humperdinck. Which could prove something, but probably doesn’t.

Anyway – what can we tell about it? Well, the immediate thought is a new Big Daddy… but the high-speed thing is already within the Big Daddy’s abilities. The only new feature is the fact he was described as “thin”. In terms of speculation, I think we’re heading into a “Big Daddy’s Without Kids, Go Forth To Get Them” sort of thing. But why? And where? And whom? And how? All will be revealed, unless they decide to end Bioshock 2 on a cliffhanger like bastards.

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I also immediately got the connection between the description of the kidnapper and the protagonist of the original game.

Something else I got that no one else seems to have mentioned yet: It’s 1967. As in: seven years after the original game. THE GIRL IS SEVEN YEARS OLD.

If you do the good ending, you end up dying as an old man while the Little Sisters seem to be 20-ish (which makes sense when you remember the accelerated aging thing). The protagonist might be dead by 1967, or maybe BS2 takes place chronologically during the good ending… or maybe it’s the BAD ending?

Alternately, we do know that the Big Daddies are more or less human under the suits, so maybe it’s just another Big Daddy (not the protagonist) without a suit on.

Thief 2 (3:DS wasn’t too bad either), Deus Ex (2:IW to an extent), Far Cry (2 not half as much as 1), Half-Life 2 (although I prefer 1 – can’t wait for Black Mesa!), STALKER (:CS had a better revision of the engine, but original had better gameplay), and Arx Fatalis (classic underworld sprawl), are some of the best games I’ve played since System Shock 2.

BioShock didn’t impress me as much I thought it was going to that’s all. Also, having just completed Condemned at the time, I couldn’t help feeling that some parts of BS were ‘inspired’ from Condemned…

I really loved the first Bioshock and can’t wait for this one. Hopefully it won’t be a sequel. Well, not only a sequel anyway.

I would like a introductory sequence that’s like a flashback which shows how was Rapture when everything seemed utopic and people lived a dream in it. And then see when everything colapsed!

Then the story would move to ’67 and show you as a PI who’s investigating this strange case about bigfoots, missing girls and a stranger with a helmet.

Of course at some point you would face a big daddy and intrigued by it go following him in a boat and ending up in a secret passage for an underground facility that would lead you to Rapture.

That’s what I can assume Bioshock 2 will be about, but I’m intrigued how they will show Rapture in a new way, besides having butterflies and new flora in it and lots of water. Maybe now it’ll be more sandbox. Maybe there are more survivors underwater and NPC you can meet. Maybe it should be more like Fallout 3. Some less FPS more RPG underwater would be amazing!

Yes, and now story-led FPS/RPG hybrids are viable again. Publishers will fund them. The chaos around Bioshock’s release revealed Levine basically had to mortgage Irrational and accept heavy DRM requirements to get the game made. A game of Shock 2’s level of complexity would simply not have sold on consoles, and might have made little impression on the PC. Shock 2 itself learned that the hard way.

BioShock was only a bit above Halo-level in terms of game mechanics, it sold well, and now there is an actually successful narrative FPS (by modern publishers’ metrics, anyway). With luck, now a console audience has seen what can be done in terms of atmosphere and storytelling, they might be more willing to shell out for more complex games in future. BioShock 2 can rely on the success of its predecessor to get over players’ misgivings if the developers wish to throw in more complex mechanics.

In other words, we probably can’t have another Shock 2-level game until a few more years down the road. But thanks to BioShock, the concept is actually on developers’ radar again.

BioShock 2 teaser site is kind of lame. Not a great presentation.
Bioshock had great potential however the second part was just a simple fps. They simply missed the SS2 freedom by forcing the idiotic corridors. But the game still had a lot of story in it, even in the second part. Even with the bads, it’s still a good game. Not System Shock 3, but a good game.

Uh, am I the only one guessing the game actually takes place NOW? Sure, there are references galore to 1967 — but the “There Is Something in the Sea!” poster has a *web address* on it, which would disqualify the 1967 setting.

Look into the file cabinet. The guy you play as will probably be the dad of one of the little girls that went missing. Also, the message on the answering machine refers to you with the name written in the reports of the missing girl’s father, so that looks pretty straightforward.
Corresponding with the smaller size footprint, the description of the kidnapper in the file states ‘female’. FEMALE (almost definetly not JACK, who we left as a male in all three endings of Bioshock. Just an observation :)
My guess: You play as angsty dad searching for daughter and becoming obsessed with the disapearances. Finds leftover, surviving Rapture lab and does heroic shit. Big reveal- Diversuit is scientist who eventually went insane and decided to continue experiements.